Just a quick note to say that while aiming for natural birth is the norm and preparation and education are excellent, please don't beat yourself up if you end up having a c-section or induction. The birth is one day, then you have the rest of her life.

Agnes wasn't moving the day of my 39 week check-up and was delivered by section two hours after I walked in for a quick appointment. It saved her life and was fine (ruined my lunch plans though!). Talk to your doctor, no one goes into obstetrics hoping to have a high c-section rate but some one specializing in high risk pregnancy may be a great doctor but have very high stats due to the profile of their patients.

Good luck!

Thrilled to be mother to @gnes Ei1ish Madeline and Fe1icity Bridget Be@trice

Doesn't The Netherlands have one of the highest infant mortality rates in the EU, even compared to "poorer" countries? You can't really compare it with the US (totally different health systems), but I've often heard it being used it as a "bad example" in Europe.

Personally, homebirths are one of those "first world problems" I can't ever understand. Millions of women around the world die in childbirth or suffer immense complications while western poor little rich girls go through unnecessary risks every year because they don't feel "comfortable" on a hospital.

According to the UN the Netherlands ranks 18th in the world in terms of first-year infant mortality and the US ranks 34th. The US also has by far the highest first-day death rate in the industrialised world, which is possibly a more accurate measure of the maternity system (given that other factors like poverty affect the first year of life).

From the Save the Children's annual Mother's Index report:

"The US ranks number 46—the worst among developed countries—in maternal health, and 41st in child well-being. Overall, the US ranks as the 30th “best place to be a mother,” just above Japan and South Korea, but below all of Western Europe, Slovenia, Poland, Belarus, and numerous other countries.
An American woman faces a 1 in 2,400 risk of death during childbirth. Only five other industrialized countries—Albania, Latvia, Moldova, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine—fare worse on maternal death rates. A woman in the US is more than 10 times as likely as a woman in Estonia, Greece or Singapore to eventually die from a pregnancy related cause."

Give me a home birth in the Netherlands vs a hospital birth in the US any day of the week.

According to the UN the Netherlands ranks 18th in the world in terms of first-year infant mortality and the US ranks 34th. The US also has by far the highest first-day death rate in the industrialised world, which is possibly a more accurate measure of the maternity system (given that other factors like poverty affect the first year of life).

From the Save the Children's annual Mother's Index report:

"The US ranks number 46—the worst among developed countries—in maternal health, and 41st in child well-being. Overall, the US ranks as the 30th “best place to be a mother,” just above Japan and South Korea, but below all of Western Europe, Slovenia, Poland, Belarus, and numerous other countries.
An American woman faces a 1 in 2,400 risk of death during childbirth. Only five other industrialized countries—Albania, Latvia, Moldova, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine—fare worse on maternal death rates. A woman in the US is more than 10 times as likely as a woman in Estonia, Greece or Singapore to eventually die from a pregnancy related cause."

Give me a home birth in the Netherlands vs a hospital birth in the US any day of the week.

The Netherlands does rather poorly when compared to other EU countries, despite the fact that it's one of the richest countries in Europe.

No one is talking about the US, I suppose we can all agree that your health system is a disgrace and (as @blade pointed out) infant mortality is measured differently anyway. A hospital birth in The Netherlands might be preferable to one in the US, but if you have any sort of complications even a camp hospital in Mozambique would be preferable to a homebirth in Amsterdam, as long as there's a doctor around.